2008: The year of the Democrat

I've been staying quite mum about American politics for the most part these days, largely because I'm stuck on who to support. Can you believe it? I'm actually not backing the sisterhood 100%. The truth is, as great a symbol as it would be to see Clinton as president, people shouldn't just support her because she's a woman. I mean the whole point of gender equality (or equal opportunity if you'd like to argue semantics) is that women and men should be given the same rights, and should be regarded equally as well. If women truly want emancipation, then don't just vote for Hillary because she shares your gender. Treat her like the rest of the candidates, look at her policies, and vote for the candidate who you think will do the best job as president. Sorry, let me re-phrase that: Vote for the democrat you think will do the best job as president. There, much better.

My problem with Clinton? Well, she's a flip-flopper for one. I mean first she tries to bring this socialized medicine into effect and gets squashed by the republicans and bought out by the lobbyists and pharmaceutical companies. Then she votes yes to go into Iraq and now admits it was a bad choice and wants to bring the troops back. But then she votes for this resolution in the senate that is essentially a fig-leaf allowing Bush to go into Iran (Obama wasn't even in the senate that day to vote so don't think he's any better). Clinton's defense was that she believes Iran has been manufacturing weapons being used against American troops. So she wants to designate the revolutionary guard in Iran as a terrorist organization so that they can "impose sanctions on their leaders". Gee, I wonder what that means. If she's so interested in getting the troops out of Iraq, then what will it matter if Iran is making weapons? It's not like there will be any American troops left to fight anyways, right? Hmmm.

Then you've got Obama. The charismatic, young, black um...celebrity figure or presidential candidate? I can't exactly figure out what he is anymore, with the music videos and "Barack Obama girl" plastered all over the media. Which by the way doesn't guarantee him the black vote entirely. It seems black women are also in support of Hillary. And I can see why. Black men were able to vote years before any white or black woman could thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. and his movement to end racial oppression. What he forgot to include in there was the oppression of women. You can't really blame him. Never send a man to do a woman's job, right? Anyways the point is, it seems black women want to see a woman of any colour as president in hopes that she will cater to their rights more than a black man (as history has already dictated).

It just makes me wonder, all these candidates (except for McCain) who are promising to end the war in Iraq, will they really do it? Who can you trust? I feel like it's all a bunch of fake rhetoric sometimes. Which is why I'm so thankful that I don't have to make an actual decision.

We had a girls' night last Friday and some friends of ours came over to play games and eat Chinese food. One of the girls was American...and well, it was only inevitable that eventually politics came up and we found out that although she was a democrat, she supports Bush 100% and the war in Iraq (which is pronounced ee-raack by the way and not eye-rack). Let me also set the situation up a little better. This was said to an audience consisting of myself, Z (who is half Lebanese/half Syrian) and our other friend who is a Muslim Sri-Lankan. Needless to say, it was quite the heated argument. Funny enough, when we asked her why there is a war in Iraq, she had no clue. There is no relation between 9/11 and Iraq. But I think we've all come to realization that unless there is an oil-well in the pit of Osama's colon, there won't be half as many troops looking for him in Afghanistan as there are in Iraq. And don't give me that "we already found Osama and executed him" story...we all know he's still hiding away somewhere and Bush is paying the mortgage on his cave.

Anyways, the whole conversation made me realize how lucky I am, to be in the company of people like Z. People who I can exchange information with and learn from, people who actually have an idea of what's going on around the world, and most importantly, people who want to make a difference. I don't know if I've ever explained what it is she's interested in, but she wants to travel to places like Africa and the Middle East to help improve peace-keeping efforts there. She wants to stop the fighting and help bring about positive change and eventually work for the UN. That's her passion, and I'm confident she's going to get there because I really can't see her doing anything else. I think what she (unknowingly) reinforces in me is to also maintain my ambitions. All of us have our roles to fulfill that are equally essential. It's so important to stay motivated, and inspired, in everything you do, and to always ask yourself "what is the purpose of doing this? what am I achieving on a greater level?".

To those of you able to vote, make sure you consider that on your ballot.